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Why It Works
- Making tang yuan from scratch allows you to experiment with different fillings.
- The tang yuan are served in their cooking liquid, which doubles as a soothing broth.
A popular snack all over China, glutinous rice balls, or tang yuan, are filled with red bean, sesame, peanut, and other sweet fillings that ooze out from mochi-like dumplings skins. The dumpling skins owe their pleasantly gummy texture to glutinous rice flour, which produces a chewier dough.
You’ll find packets of frozen tang yuan at most Chinese supermarkets, and these days the fillings not only come in the standard assortment, but have branched out into fancy-sounding ones like “sweet osmanthanus” and “chestnut and sesame seeds.” Why then, take the trouble of making your own at home?
Serious Eats / Chichi Wang
Why not? The dough for tang yuan is a simple combination of glutinous rice flour, regular rice flour, and water. Once you get the hang of enclosing the dough around nuggets of sweet filling, you’ll find that making your own tang yuan takes no more than half an hour.
The best part about making your own is that you can experiment with all kinds of nuts and pastes. The filling is a simple combination of sugar, lard, and a filling of nuts and/or beans. Use ground peanuts or sesame seeds, or experiment with almonds, cashews, and pecans. (To prepare the nuts: roast them, chop them up, and grind them in a mortar and pestle before mixing with lard and sugar.) You could even make your own red bean filling from dried adzuki beans by simmering and boiling them until soft, then sweetening with sugar to taste. Coconut flakes are also a great addition to fillings of any kind. Though lard is traditional and gives the filling a mild savory note, you could substitute with coconut oil or even smoky bacon fat.
Though tang yuan is eaten year-round, they’re also popular during Lunar New Year, and my family celebration isn’t complete without them. I recommend making large batches of tang yuan and freezing them for a quick breakfast or dessert for yourself or your guests—they’re sure to be a hit, regardless of what you fill them with.
May 2011
The Sweet, Chewy Dessert I Make Every Lunar New Year
Cook Mode
(Keep screen awake)
For the Filling:
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2 tablespoons roasted and ground sesame seeds, peanuts, almonds, or cashews
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2 tablespoons granulated sugar (1 ounce; 30g)
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2 tablespoons (30ml) lard or coconut oil
For the Dumpling Skin:
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150g glutinous rice flour (5 1/4 ounces; 1 1/2 cups)
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15g regular rice flour or tapioca starch (about 1/2 ounce; 2 tablespoons)
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133 to 148g (9 to 10 tablespoons) boiling water
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To Make the Filling: In a mortar and pestle, grind seeds or nuts to a fine but not powdery consistency. In a small saucepan, melt the lard over low heat. In a small bowl, stir lard together with the sugar and ground nuts. Chill mixture in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes before use.
Serious Eats / Jen Causey
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To Make the Skin: In a medium heatproof bowl, whisk glutinous rice flour and regular rice flour (or tapioca flour) to combine. Add the water, starting with 9 tablespoons (133g) and adding an additional 1 tablespoon (15g) if necessary, to make a soft but non-sticky dough. Divide the dough in half. Working on a surface dusted with rice flour, roll each half into a cylinder about 1 1/2 inches thick and, using a knife or a bench scraper, cut the dough into segments about 1 inch wide; dust with more glutinous rice flour as needed to prevent sticking.
Serious Eats / Jen Causey
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To Make the Dumplings: Take one piece of dough and make an indent with your thumb to flatten it. Place the filling into the indent and draw the sides of the dough up to enclose it. Roll it gently between your palms to make a smooth ball. Lay the dumplings on a tray dusted with glutinous rice flour until you are ready to cook them. They can also be refrigerated or frozen.
Serious Eats / Jen Causey
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To Cook the Dumplings: Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the dumplings and gently stir to prevent sticking at the bottom of the pot. Simmer for 15 minutes, taking care not to let the water boil vigorously or else the dumpling skins will tear. The dumplings are done when the skins are almost translucent. Ladle the dumplings into soup bowls along with the cooking water.
Serious Eats / Jen Causey
Special Equipment
Saucepan, knife or bench scraper, large pot
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